Missional Church Among Torontonian Anglicans

I know I haven't written in this blog for a while, but not for lack of things happening when it comes to Missional Church and the Holy Spirit's work among us. So I thought I would catch you all up with some observations of things happening right now. This not a comprehensive list of things related to Missional Church in Anglican GTA circles--merely the stuff that I'm connected to in one way or another...

Fresh Expressions
Fresh Expressions, as you probably know if you are reading this, is a movement that started in the UK to create new church communities relevant to a rapidly changing mission context. Fresh Expressions (FX for short) has generated a lot of interest in the Diocese of Toronto, partly because the model fits the Canadian context much better than ones we see looking at the American (Episcopal) Church. Essentially, the UK has already made the transition to a post-Christendom society in a way that Canada is just beginning. Meanwhile, the U.S. is several years behind in terms of this social shift.

So, like I said, there is a lot of energy swirling around this FX stuff. There is even a Fresh Expressions Canada website. Also note Duke Vipperman's blog on the subject. We are bringing lots of guest speakers over from the UK to share their experiences and importing some of their models wholesale (Contemplative Fire, for example). They will also feature prominently at the Vital Church Planting Conference being held next week.

The VCP Conference is one of the main events gathering mission-minded Anglicans in Toronto. Beyond looking at new church plants, there is a ton of material relevant to established congregations looking to grow. I note that this year they have created "tracks" that implicitly acknowledge that some people have different levels of familiarity with the concepts being discussed than others. It's always an interesting and exciting time.

Missional Transformation Process
Alan Roxburgh and his folks are creating a process to help established parishes (i.e. "Inherited Church") become more missional. They are proposing to trial this process in the Diocese of Toronto and currently have a proposal in front of the College of Bishops of the Diocese. I'm hoping that this will be approved at my church will be one of the first to benefit from this work. The upshot is really the way it proposes to change the way leadership is done in our parishes. Once this kicks off, expect much more frequent updating of this blog!

The Christ-Centred Character Team
For about a year now I've been meeting with a group of folks interested in transforming how Christian Education is done in our parishes. Basically, we believe Sunday School initiatives need to align with the dramatic and rapid adoption of Character Education by the public school system. This movement towards teaching virtue and character in school requires a response from the church.

Initially our team focused on gathering and even producing resources to help Sunday School teachers. But we realized that two other major needs exist related to this effort. First, we need to develop a theological position regarding virtue! One critique of secular taxonomies of character being used by the secular school boards is that lack a foundation. Not surprisingly, exactly what constitutes "character" varies from board to board. A thoughtful Anglican approach to this problem could leverage the strengths of the historic church to provide our culture with meaningful guidance. Indeed, the Province has asked faith communities to contribute this sort of guidance to the character education movement.

A second need we identified was for a library or resource centre to support children's ministry in the Diocese. We need a place where educators can go to look at different resources and curriculum and even borrow them. We understand that the Diocese did have such a library at one time, but found it unsustainable for several reasons. We recognize that developing such a resource centre in the current budget climate is problematic, so we've been exploring the ways in which such a centre could be an independent and ultimately self-sustaining project.

The concept evolved into the "ARC"--the Anglican Resource Centre. Imagine a cross between a library, Starbucks, ABC, and the Christian Science Reading Rooms. It's similar to the Paulist Centre for Catholic Evangelization on Bathurst. Such a place would not only hold resources and host training events--it would also form the centre of a spiritual community of educators. In other words, it would be church for teachers. It's a neat concept, of course, the trick is figuring out how to make it self sustaining!

So these conversations are ongoing. If you're interesting in joining our working group, just let me know!

Toward a Theology of Urban Ministry
Rev'd Canon Gerry Loweth is teaching what we believe to be the only seminary course exclusively on Urban Ministry in Canada. We could be wrong about that. If you know of one, do tell!

Anyway, he has been speaking to some of us interested in Urban Ministry about developing this line of enquiry for the Diocese. The fact is, we do not seem to have a very good foundational theology of urban ministry. I remember noting this was a big problem back when I was part of the Parkdale Ministry Development Council and it's associated commissions and committees and meetings. Back then we struggled to find workable models for urban church and build support for them. Foundational theological work on how the urban church is distinct from other mission fields would have gone a long way to help us move beyond old parochial models that are frankly more appropriate for suburban or rural settings. Without such ideas and models to guide the efforts of urban evangelism, we are likely to find ourselves constantly reacting to challenges rather than embracing opportunities.

Again, this is just in discussions, but they are good discussions. At the very least we should publish an annotated bibliography for those interested in reading about urban ministry!

New Workplace Bible Study
When I came to COTM I inherited a workplace bible study held downtown that was clearly loosing steam. At the last meeting it was just me and one other person--not a good use of our time or precious ministry resources. So I suspened it for revision and have since been talking about developing a partnership between several downtown parishes to create a work place bible study that will reach as many people as possible. Stay tuned...

Projects at Church of The Messiah
Missional Church, at it's core, is about the way Christians understand their relationship to the world. Nonetheless, a fruit of this spirit ought to be concrete programmes, projects, and initiatives that are ministries appropriate to the mission of the church. So I'm trying a couple of things at Messiah that I would call "Missional" in that sense.

One is a Mother's Fellowship group that will start meeting in the next week or two. A group of neighbourhood moms getting together to talk, study, pray, and eat while their kids are being taken care of. It's kind of like the MOPS programme, but more homegrown. We discerned a need for this kind of ministry to the community and so we are reaching out to make it happen!

What's Next
More conversations, no doubt, because that's how the Holy Spirit changes things! I expect that enthusiasm for FXC will continue to grow. We are going to hear more about things like the Jeremiah Project and Contemplative Fire Canada and the Missional Transformation Process being designed by Roxburgh. But this is going to bump up against the legacy of inherited church, i.e., the Canons of the Diocese and the various restrictions they present. Note that one of the reasons FX has worked in the U.K. is that it received a lot of support and accommodation from the hierarchy (most famously from Archbishop of Canterbury). They created canonical infrastructure with things like the Bishop Mission Orders. We'll need similar sorts of things here.

Anyway, this is part of why my plate is so full at the moment, but these efforts to reform the church are essential to the calling we receive in the Gospel, so I don't feel like I have a lot of choice about it!

-t